DROP IN ROBBERIES LEADS MIAMI-DADE CRIME CUTS

In an effort to lower the number of robberies in unincorporated areas of the county, Miami-Dade police officers have been aggressively patrolling problem areas for the past three years and sometimes running the license plates for every car in one parking lot.

The meticulous and painstaking work has yielded a steady drop not only in robberies, but also in other crime categories, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas said.

Penelas and Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez said that in 1996, the county had 6,401 robberies, and by 1999 the number was 3,606, a 43 percent drop in three years.

"You have to go back 21 years to find a year with less robberies in Miami-Dade County," Penelas said. "These are amazing news and very good news for this community."

Alvarez said with fewer robberies, there is a domino effect in other crime statistics. The number of homicides drops, too, because there are fewer violent confrontations. There are fewer stolen cars, he said, because robbers prefer to be in stolen cars when they commit their crimes. And burglaries drop, too, because more often than not, robbers are also burglars.

In 1996 there were 143 homicides in the unincorporated areas of the county; this year there were 106, a drop of almost 26 percent. Burglaries in 1999 dropped 15 percent from 1998 and 29 percent from 1996.

The figures are only for unincorporated Miami-Dade County and do not include cities such as Miami and Hialeah, which have their own police departments.

The crime dive in Miami-Dade is part of a trend throughout the nation. Police attribute the dip to aging of the baby boomers, a good economy and more proactive anti-crime programs. Alvarez said the efforts in Miami-Dade have been especially successful.

"The trend in unincorporated Dade is much greater than any in the nation," Alvarez said. "We're surpassing the national trend."

Alvarez pointed out that Miami-Dade has an average of 380 robberies per 100,000 residents, while New York City, which is often viewed as a national example of effective crime fighting, had 435 robberies per 100,000 residents. Cities such as Orlando and Los Angeles have 689 and 437, respectively.

Mickey Finn, a crime researcher for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the difference between areas like Orlando and Miami-Dade might have to do with the demographic layout. He explained that while Miami-Dade has inner city areas like Liberty City, it includes some suburban and rural areas that might dilute its numbers compared to a mostly urban area like the one covered by the Orlando Police Department. When people live closer to each other, friction is more common than in areas where people are more spread out, authorities said.

There is some bad news in Miami-Dade's annual crime tally. Gun deaths among young people increased slightly. In 1999, there were 28 deaths among young people because of gunfire compared to 26 in 1998. Penelas said the rate climbed at the last moment as a result of a violent December.

In the past year, Penelas has turned an effort to drop the number of youth gun deaths into a pet project. In November, Penelas unveiled a five-point plan for a campaign dubbed Not One More, which aims at uniting community outreach, law enforcement and the private sector to reduce the number of deaths. Despite the increase from 1998 to 1999, the number of deaths among young people has dropped from 48 in 1996 to 28 this year.

Penelas said the success in reducing the crime rate is even more noteworthy given the county's growing population. In 1996, a study by the University of Florida calculated the population of the unincorporated areas of the county at 1,064,431 people. In 1999, the number rose to 1,114,053, an increase of almost 50,000 more people in three years.

In that same time period, violent crimes -- a category that includes crimes like robberies and forcible sex offenses -- dropped from 18,808 to 12,676.

"This is not a blip in the radar screen. This is a trend," Alvarez said. "I would compare unincorporated Dade with any other area of this county with the same demographics and venture to say we're safer."

Jose Dante Parra Herrera can be reached at jparra@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5005.